Collar Pins and Other Misplaced Items

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, November 7, 1911: I’ve concluded it’s easier to lose things than it is to find them. The other day six one cent stamps disappeared, and now today I lost two collar pins, which I have no hopes of ever recovering them again.

Collar Pins (Photo Source: The Youth's Companion, December 7, 1911)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Young people misplace things, too!

I know that Grandma was frustrated, but this entry makes me smile. Sometimes I worry that I misplace things because I’m getting older. This entry reminds me that we all—young, middle-aged, and old– lose items.

I’m not exactly sure what collar pins were—but they apparently were the rage in 1911. There were directions for making crocheted collar pins in the December 7, 1911 issue of The Youth’s Companion.

New Uses for Irish Crochet

. . . Gold or silver pins used to fasten collars are covered with a single crochet stitch of fine cotton. For a straight strip like the one shown in the illustration, make a chain the length of the pin to be covered, and work back and forth until you have the right width. . .

An effective ornament for the neck or for the meeting-point of a Dutch collar is shown in the illustration. This is made in single crochet stitch of coarse cotton; a fine needle is used in order to keep the work as close as possible. Two parts are made; the pattern chosen here is in the form of a square, with loops round each side of the square. These loops are made of the picot stitch. The parts are joined on three picot loops at the back and a strip of black velvet ribbon six inches long by one and one-half inches wide is passed through the opening in the design.

Sometimes I’m amazed at the serendipitous way I find materials for this blog. I’d looked ahead and knew a diary entry that mentioned collar pins was coming up. Since I didn’t know what they were. I googled “collar pins” but had little luck.

I’d pretty much given up on finding anything about collar pins when I was flipping through 1911 issues of TheYouth’s Companions a few days ago because Grandma had written about getting a subscription. Suddenly an article on Irish crochet that contained the words collar pins jumped out at me–and I had the material for this post.

5 thoughts on “Collar Pins and Other Misplaced Items”

Sheryl, Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving your comment. I’m especially glad because now I have found your blog. I really like the format. But I must admit I’m totally jealous that you have this lovely diary.